NEAC Debuts "Gameday the DIII Way" Sportsmanship Video

Jan 25, 2018

GANSEVOORT, N.Y. – In an effort to continue promoting good sportsmanship and a positive game day experience, the North Eastern Athletic Conference (NEAC) is proud to debut a new conference-wide “Gameday the DIII Way” sportsmanship video.

Members of the NEAC Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) worked together to create and shoot the video at their annual meeting in November 2017, hosted by Penn College. The video was developed with the intent to bring to life the NCAA’s Gameday the DIII Way initiative, which promotes a service-oriented approach to game day management to ensure consistent expectations and a positive experience at all Division III institutions. The program, which was created by the Division III Sportsmanship and Game Environment Working Group and the Disney Institute, was delivered to NEAC SAAC members at the November meeting. Following the training session, SAAC members were tasked with creating a video around the program’s four service standards of safety, responsiveness, dignity and experience.

NEAC Commissioner Candice Murray was a member of the NCAA Division III Sportsmanship and Game Environment Working Group that developed the Gameday the DIII Way program. Murray is pleased with the final product and looks forward to fully integrating the program into the NEAC.

“This is a tremendous new initiative rolled out by Division III and I was thrilled to be a part of it,” Murray shared. “I’m pleased with the efforts of the working group and it’s wonderful to see all the pieces of this project come together. I’m very proud of all of the SAAC members and coaches who were involved in our video project. Gameday the DIII Way provides a common purpose and standards that clearly align with the NEAC’s expectation of the highest levels of sportsmanship.”

Gameday the DIII Way will become part of the NEAC’s comprehensive approach to sportsmanship. The NEAC currently maintains a “Sportsmanship Best Practices” document and a Code of Conduct for student-athletes, coaches and fans. The conference office also distributes a sportsmanship letter to parents and fans which is available on the NEAC website. NEAC teams also complete a sportsmanship ranking at the conclusion of each season with those rankings used to determine the winner of Athletics’ Direct Reports Cup, which is part of the NEAC Presidents’ Cup.

Today’s video debut is the beginning of a busy spring for the NEAC, which will include continuous promotion of good sportsmanship. Each NEAC institution will be working on individual sportsmanship videos, which are scheduled to be released later in the spring. Five NEAC administrators are also trained to facilitate the Gameday the DIII Way program and will be providing training sessions to each of the NEAC’s 14 full-member institutions between February and May.

NEAC Assistant Commissioner Stephanie Dutton collaborated with Jon Cofer, who is a Production Coordinator for the Pittsburgh Pirates, to oversee all aspects of the NEAC SAAC video project. With the video project complete, she believes the program can have a positive impact as the NEAC moves forward.

“Our NEAC SAAC members and coaches are excited to be at the forefront of sharing this message and we are thrilled with the end result,” Dutton added. “We would also like to thank Jon [Cofer] for sharing his expertise with our student-athletes and making our vision for this project a reality. We believe the Gameday the DIII Way program will make us stronger as a conference and continue to enhance the experience of all those involved with the NEAC.”